Living the Live in the tradition of Advaita Vedanta

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Buddhism

Somehow we are always trying to establish a continuum in our Life. The things we like we invite to stay with us forever and at the same time we immediately want to get rid of the shadow parts. We always look for the unchangeable in the changeable. But now what when we are seriously looking for an answer on: Who am I? Of course, even in our meditations we act the same as we always do: we position our-self as the unchangeable, watching the changeable. This way we still act like we are used to.

Look at a baby that is helplessly waiting for care. Without any assistance the newborn will die pretty soon. From our first moments in this world we need care, on all levels of existence. For a grown up it is rather simple. You are hungry and you find a way to buy some food and you will eat it soon after. Now look at the difference between you as a baby and as a grown up.

During the years you have learned to talk, to walk, to plan, to work, to cook, even to digest properly. You have learned countless methods to build yourself a working physical state with on top of the cake a partner to love, a comfortable home, proper education, a job , money, healthcare, a pension-plan. You easily can fill up this list with many other desires. Picture yourself as the little baby and now. Over the years you have build up a full body-worldsystem of identification, all set up in a perfect functioning dream of space and time.

For a baby there is no world. Even objects appear to be blurry colour-patterns. It is not made to survive on itself. But from day one the body will learn itself to survive. Identifications will grow, building up safety, each at a time. Noticeably the Idea of a separate existing body in a world of objects will appear to be. And this is how it should function otherwise the body, THE IDEA, would die. The body is there and has learned to live and survive. It is perfectly fit for it.

For a body the natural knowledge and learning-curve how to survive has to be born out of something deeper. And that is the Idea of separation, and therefore the urge to protect itself. How come? Well, in essence the birth of the body is THE EXPRESSION of separation itself already. This whole physical state IS build on fear of death and is urging itself to overcome death, because IT undoubtedly KNOWS there is just LIFE, as in CONSCIOUSNESS itself! Why would your heart beat, why would your longs function, why are your organs and blood doing its job. Yes, they all work together to survive death!

The physical world is build upon THE IDEA of mortality. Everything has been created to live a long and happy life with the avoidance of pain and sorrow leading to sickness and death. Deep down we know all this. Birth and death are part of the same IDEA. We even create the idea of an eternal soul, a heaven or a someone who can reach enlightenment, or we like to live the buddha as the unchangeable watcher on the hill. Even then, we want to survive.

And it is all so very natural….

When you sit on your couch and you start to meditate like the best you can there is one thing left to understand. You are THIS, the IDEA that created the unchangeable in the changeable. This has to be seen, This has to be understood. Probably now you think. ah.. I know what he means: I am both, I am all there is, I am beyond the world of objects and therefore beyond the changeable in the unchangeable. This is the tricky mind, because now you have to take the next step. A step into the abyss. And like a teenage girl who wants to experience her first love, you first will know when you have taken the invitation to jump into the ocean.

Let me tell you this. All my articles refer direct to what you ARE: THIS. Not there, not here; just THIS is it. THIS what ‘ you ‘ARE, nothing more, nothing less. Within all THIS, there has to be understood something very important if you want to realize your true nature. And when you really get into this, not just as a solid thought, but as in the core of existence itself, there is not much left to get, to reach or even to be.

Before we go deeper into THIS, I will ask you to close your eyes for about 5 minutes. Within just a small piece your daily routine that I want you to relax and just observe without being focused on something. Just be.

Now, in these 5 minutes you have experienced what I call the physical state. This is the state of Time and Space. You have noticed Time, because you let the little meditation happen for about 5 minutes. You created a past, a now and a future for your exercise. You did this in a comfortable position, laying or sitting in a room, a house or on a bench in the park with your smart phone within reach to read the article. You will also observe the world around you: objects in any shapes and seizes. This is your created Space. Time and Space. that’s it. Nothing more, nothing less.

yoga

I remember my own moments of doing nothing. I went to Buddhist groups, took meditation classes, I did Yoga and was very serious to be real deep and sacred with my meditations. I was pretty good on sitting on my couch, for hours and hours, just with some traditional slow-paced walking brakes. This was how I learned to do it during my Buddhist classes. Later on, working with Yoga and even the years with my teacher of Advaita Vedanta, Alexander Smit, I kept doing these exercises ongoing. One day it left me, like it had found me once and I learned that meditation practice is great to relax a lot of mind-clutter, but when you really want to realize yourself, it also can create one of the biggest illusions.

This reality-state, your time and space creation, has the mechanism of change. Nothing remains the same, not even a split second. Countless molecules are constant on the move and even your body is part of this dance of change like any other object. Everything you can observe from the universe, including thoughts and feelings, is on the move to grow, to change, to disappear, to be born. We cry for joy when new life arrives and we encounter a great loss when a beloved one suddenly dies. Attachment is part of the physical existence. We get attached to our language, habits, surrounding, people, even the label of coffee and toothpaste. We even prefer to follow a more or less pattern of routines, day in, day out. Not only we humans live like that, but also animals and even plants, that follow the rhythm of the seasons.

Somehow we are always trying to establish a continuum in our Life. The things we like we invite to stay with us forever and at the same time we want to get rid immediately of the shadow parts of life. We always look for the unchangeable in the changeable. But now what when we are seriously looking for an answer: Who am I?

“One final step. Not a small one, a big one. A huge step I have to make, but then I have reached the state of self-realisation.” This is what I often hear from seekers looking for Truth. But is this the way how you will get what you want? Just making one final effort like fixing the one light in the Christmas tree to let all the other lights shine at the same time? This is what I explained to you last week. Now I will show you that in reality there are no steps to be taken. You are the problem till YOU have realised that.

It is rush-hour and you are busy hurrying to get home in time for dinner. You are driving by car and all around you it is packed with cars. Everyone is eager to reach their destinations as soon as possible. Now if you would observe yourself in direct view by satellite,, like on Google Earth, you would see thousands of cars driving around each other like ants doing their massive work. There is a constant activity of cars on the move. Picture it.

Now you get caught in a severe traffic-jam. Your lane of cars is coming to a standstill. There you are, waiting on spot x, not even moving a single inch. Well, at that very moment: are you still considering yourself part of the ongoing traffic-event, or are you out? Now when you look from above there is still an immense moving of the ants, but you and some others, the 1% of the travelers during rush-hour seem to have stopped. So, are you in or out of the game?

Evening Rush Hour (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

You are THE cause of everything

Sure, now you see yourself as part of the rush-hour event. In fact you are one of the ‘victims’ even. You even might be part of the cause of the traffic-jam, an accident. So in a spiritual sense: is it you waiting for the tow-car entering the playfield to fix the situation, an activity that will let you rejoin the riding party? Or were you already part of the situation and was your car, coming to a standstill, still part of the flow of traffic itself? Even when your car didn’t move? When you look carefully, using your satellite – view, you would find your non-driving car to be a major part of the rush-hour itself. Perhaps now you would notice, you even are the cause of the traffic-jam itself!

In the middle of a traffic-jam

This is actually how you should act on your trip for self-realisation. As soon as you come to a point that you realise you are “on your way” to find answers(s) on ‘Who am I’ you already have come far beyond a point of no return. In the middle of a traffic jam, you wait and act accordingly: there is nothing else to do. Just realise this: the fact that you have positioned yourself in a car that is stranded in a traffic-jam, doesn’t mean you are not already part of the process to find answers. That last part you are looking for to connect the dots, that last part of action that lets you come home from your trip, is just there because your Idea made it to appear. In fact YOU make the traffic come to a standstill by your Idea of the one missing %, so that you can think you are no longer part of the traffic, while in reality you just have to realise you already have connected the dots. Way long before even there were rush-hours and christmas-lights.

You might consider Self-realisation as a moment of a sudden experience of Truth: finally the dots are connected. Before that moment there were just a few glimpses of a universal truth and now it can’t be missed: you have realised your true potential, Truth itself. The parts have become one piece. This is what I often read. You, the seeker of God, self-realisation or what you might name your path for ultimate knowledge, is often promised a step into light from darkness. That sounds interesting, but are you in the dark?

Perhaps you remember the string of lights in a Christmas tree. A whole year-long the lights were put back in a box, safely kept on a shell in the attic, and now, the next Christmas-time coming up, it refused to work. With a good touch of Christmas-stress you started to check every single light. Most of the time you would find one light not to be connected, preventing all other lights to work. You gave all attention you had and now it worked! From no lights at all into one huge shining colourful bright Christmas tree.

First you had no light and by fixing just one connection, they all would shine. All the lights on the string were depended on that one single candle that was on the run. In this case 99 of the 100 candles were functioning properly, but couldn’t come to work because they were depended of the one candle that had stepped out of the game.

This is what I often hear: just one courageous step and I will know. It is just the one step that is so hard to make. And it is true, in your world of Idea’s you are so much busy looking for that one lose candle that it has become part of the obsession. Fix the one and all will shine.

Candles (Photo credit: magnuscanis)

Waiting for mr 100

But is it? Is that the ultimate truth? Like there is nothing, just potential? Just the other 99 working lights ready to work, waiting for mr. 100? In this case you would say: I have everything ready in my house, waiting for the party. Everything is there. You are just waiting for the guests to arrive. Or like the string of lights is ready to invite the electricity to do its work. Still, this somehow suggests that everything, but one, is ok. It is ready and now you aim for the last candle, closing the dots.

Now at the same time this situation implies that 99% in your spiritual believe-system is depending on the 1 % that makes it to work. But why should you have 99% waiting for just 1% to make it function? Well this also happens when you download a file into your PC and the last 1% holds and wait to be downloaded. In this case the 99% has no use, but in your human potential it is something completely the other way around. It is just your Idea that you need one step to realise your true potential. In fact you already made that one a long time ago.

What does it mean: we are living an IDEA? Today I will go deeper into this. As long as there is a sense of I am, there is the manifest, and it will create itself impressions or idea’s based upon earlier identifications. Idea’s that will possibly turn themselves into manifestations. A bit like the ‘ Your wish is my command’ principle: what you identify with is what you get. Sounds reasonable. I, Idea, Identification, Manifestation, I, Identification, and so on.

But still within the making of idea’s there seems to be a separate control centre where idea’s are made. And that in favour of idea’s that turn the universe into your liking. True? To some extend, yes but, as in Truth, no.

As long as there is this idea of a soul or some spiritual part of ourself hidden behind an ego (forget that word now please), a somehow ‘ individual ‘ part that remains unchanged and untouched by life and death itself, we trick ourself into a fantasy-world. And yes, that is the creation of another Idea.

N-universe illustration (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

Q: Can you explain to me what you mean by living an IDEA? I made the observation that in one way or the other I always end up having Idea’s. I start to realise that it is impossible to stop having them as long as I am living, because all objects like you say, including my own body are already expression of an Idea. It confuses me.

A: Good question, because everything part of this manifestation, no exception, is Idea itself.

Q: So we are always part of a manifestation made out of idea’s?

A: As in manifestation: yes, because it is an idea into form. As in what you really are , non-manifested, or awareness itself: no. I will tell you a story and you will understand.

On your path to self-realisation you suddenly notice that you have a red body, wearing red clothes. You eat red food in a fully red world. Everything is red. There are no exceptions: all there is, is red. It is like the colour scheme has changed and everything is showing red to you. And it has always been like that! Red in just one variety! Thoughts, feelings, all your senses…red it is.

Now you suddenly are fully aware of this you try to talk about it with your friends but, even your loved-ones are not aware of the fact that everything is ‘red’. They don’t bother, because they are not aware of it. They just don’t see everything, including themselves as one and the same: red.

Q: So you mean by whatever I want to change in my life it will always be…..red?

A: YES, slow down, but you get it. Now you will be able to understand! Within this process of you observing everything, nothing excluded, fully aware of its redness, you start to realise that YOU, this awareness, this I AM THIS, has created itself a red manifest, now. At the same moment you realise YOU are more than just red, you are everything and beyond all colours. For the first time you are able to see the manifest and all there is just as it is: now as in the fact that YOU has shown itself in a fully red-only manifestation. And you will love it!

Q: And I AM that where red appears into!

A: Correct. You are the red manifest and where it appears into at the same time. But now you realise this! Will this knowledge make it possible to see other colours? What do you think?

Life is a precious gift. Don’t waste it.

Q: Yes, because I AM everything.

A: Nice answer, but I have to disappoint you. As long as this creation into form, your body and therefore everything that exists from thoughts, feelings to the most distant stars in the universe, will be seen into form, …they will be red. And knows no time, no space, no condition at all. It is just red. Now you realise that this all happens into YOU. And there is nothing left that will interfere. Now you will relax.

Q: Now what happens when you realise all this? You first have to die to create another manifest in other colours?

A: See what your mind is tricking you into? It still thinks there is another, perhaps better existence, possibly in a new body in a new form. This is what holding you back from self-realisation. You don’t have to give up your red coloured life. You just have to be aware that it is all red, no matter what you do, and that YOU are unaffected by all this, because this manifest is what you are! This awareness and that YOU are the creator and also the created universe both at the same time is enough to know. There is nothing more to know even. That is all, and already this can take a long time to understand, to have absorbed it. Take your time.

Becoming a better person. To be kind for your loved-ones. To help others. And this in the most generous ways. It is easy to make this list much longer with numerous views on how to behave like a compassionate person, all caring and sharing. And indeed you don’t have to search the internet for a long time to find quite a few teachers, offering courses how to discover your most inner feelings. All with the invitation to be part of a happening full of Tender, Love and Care.

Nothing more, nothing less. But is it automatically a guarantee that you will win the Mother Theresa award one day?

Q: For you living THE HEART is living your TRUE Nature. Now that you realise this Heart, does it automatically mean that you will always be compassionate and helpful towards others?

A: Some sort of saint?

Q: Open and understanding, loveable?

A: Long time ago I was cleaning a bathroom. A spider was in a corner, probably ready to build a web. I picked up the little creature and took it outside the house. At that moment I realised something had changed. As a young boy I surely had been catching flies, spiders and all kinds of insects that crossed my path. Just like little boys can act with a sudden rage to kill.

Now what had changed is, that I had realised there is nothing outside ME. I am everything and all there is. Without ME nothing even would be there. In other words, that spider was part of ME. Just like you and every other living being that appears into ME is part of ME at that very same moment. And why should I kill MYself?

Q: Was helping the spider a result of greater awareness?

A: I am sure it was.

Q: Well there you admit that living the Heart, will make you a ‘ better ‘ person.

A: No worries, I know what you mean with a ‘ better person ‘. Listen, religions have turned it all around. In Christianity we have the ten commandments and numerous other rules and regulations that will help you towards the Kingdom of Heaven. In Buddhism you will soon learn about the eight-folded path and you will try to practice that. In religion we learn how to look, to speak, to act, to meditate, to remember, to eat, and many more. All in a greater benefit towards Heaven or Enlightenment.

I will never encourage you to act according rules and the morality of a self-chosen order. Acting is living the life of an actor. It lets you live within the boundaries of a group, but you are not the group.The group appears into YOU. Rules always have the purpose to regulate. And in regulation we give up freedom.

Q: Yeah well, perhaps not rules but, you also give us tools to be more aware of who we truly are!

A: Look. That is all. Truly Look and experience. When you feel down, feel down. When you sing of joy, sing of joy. For some silent meditation is good, some practice yoga, others visit satsangs. Here in the west, people paint, ride bikes, go fishing, do needlework to relax. Do it with attention, be the witness and your true nature will unfold itself to you. Exclude nothing. Please no rules and regulations.

Q: Still it doesn’t give answer to the ‘ better person ‘ you will become?

Tender 柔 (Photo credit: kingmagic)

A: Religion teaches you the other way around. First practice endless rules and regulations. When you do this with full attention, it will get you deeper towards entering the Kingdom of Heaven. Whatever your religion is promising you.

I invite you to take immediately your spot in your Kingdom of Heaven. No rules and regulations needed. Not tomorrow, not next week. Now! There is no waiting. There is nothing to be done to realise that. Just watch and act accordingly. Be like the ‘ watcher on the hill ‘; At the same time you act and be the one watching yourself acting. Soon enough the acting and the actor become one. You will notice this change of perspective. Invite everything and all that is asking your attention. Now within the Realisation of THE HEART, Life will present itself accordingly. Everything becomes clear as it is. When this means, that people start to like the new you, invite this as a great gift. It is the sign you finally start to love YOURself.

The Pope is resigning. The world is in shock. It is more than 500 years ago a pope resigned from his function. Not suddenly stopped by death itself , but because he wants to resign. And now what? Do we get a pope from Latin-America, Asia, Africa even? And how will the Catholic Church respond?

I have to admit that I have a protestant background. In my youth we learned better to avoid Roman Catholic children. A majority of the children in my street were catholics. First recently I realised I was never invited inside their houses for a birthday party. I didn’t belong to them.

Nowadays this segregation has long gone. My wife is from a catholic family. So are my best friends even. Our religious background is not important anymore. Sure, some people find it hard to live together with newcomers in our country, wich often are muslims . That too shall pass. In time people will just mingle, giving the cake as a whole a new taste.

As a child I pictured Jesus as a man with long hair, walking on sandals, living amongst the poor, sharing the little he had. And all he did was teaching people on the subject ‘ who are you’. He was meeting up with people who were living the life of an outcast, prostitutes, thieves and beggars. I was fascinated by the bible. Still I consider it to be a book of great wisdom and knowledge. Too bad there’s hardly anyone left to explain it in the real sense. It is even worse that there is hardly anyone left to live it to the fullest: it is your birth-right to seek Truth itself.

I was not raised with devotion for a pope. So it is hard to understand what he represents to devote catholics. For me, I never saw a pope that matches my view of a teacher of The Heart; I never heard a pope talking about true Love and Wisdom.

The same for the Protestant churches. They were part of my childhood, but I gave up on them when my minister called Buddhists in Thailand pagans. We had to rescue them for the church, our church.

It is your birthright

The church as institution. It makes me feel sad. In all traditions and religions where people become more important than their message, the master long gone, institutions kill the message. At its best they will be able to share a message of Love like the Dalai lama does for instance, but everyone who has traveled through Thailand knows that Buddhism as a guidance for live hasn’t resulted into a society full of equal Love and understanding.

The essence of Truth happens always in direct confrontation with the master. It is a living Truth. Jesus, Buddha and their disciples in Satsang together. They were alive as it can be. Not part of any dead institution.

The best thing to happen in life is the direct confrontation with One Who Knows. Than you will Know yourself. It is your birth-right